


Playground Tears

by fallenflowercrowns (meggiewrites)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Homophobic Language, Kid Fic, Kid POV, Larry are husbands, M/M, Papa!Louis, a bit of angst, daddy!harry, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2121015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggiewrites/pseuds/fallenflowercrowns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little Nate Tomlinson's first day of school does not go as well has he expected. But with the support of his new friends and his parent's love, everything turns out alright in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playground Tears

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Rach](http://archiveofourown.org/users/iwillpaintasongforlou/), as always, you're a doll <3
> 
> Enjoy!

Until he was three years old, Nathan Holden Tomlinson thought it was perfectly normal to have two daddies, a daddy and a mummy, or two mummies. Nate himself had a Daddy and a Papa, and in his opinion they were quite alright parents.

Papa is mostly loud and lots of fun, except for all the times when whoever’s babysitting told him that the little boy in question had broken something again. Then Papa would get wrinkles on his forehead and sigh exasperatedly in Nate’s direction. Daddy always called Papa very ‘melodramatic’ which was a big word Nate didn’t understand. Papa would only sigh und mutter something like, “Jesus, mum will laugh at me when I tell her” which Nate also didn’t understand because Papa is Grandma’s favourite out of all her seven children, even though she’d never say that out loud. 

Daddy, on the other hand, is a bit overprotective at times, and he is terrible at telling jokes. But he also makes amazing food, takes him to great places like the zoo, and sings Nate and his younger brother Will to sleep every night.

Nate actually likes his parents a whole bigger lot more than he’d admit. 

At the first day of primary school, everyone, including Dad and Papa, expected Nate to be very nervous. “Where are you going?” Will had asked when it was already made clear that his Auntie Fizz would look after him today, with their parents going to work and Nate going away too. “I’m going to school!! I’m a big boy now!!” Nate had boasted. Everyone thought he’d be nervous, but Nate was actually Very Excited. Capital letters. He’d never gone to school before, and he was tingling all over in anticipation.

He hugged Will tightly before they left because his baby brother was really close to crying now. Then he waved at his auntie and toddled after his parents, who were already standing by the car.

The preschool was unfortunately a lot smaller than the boy had expected. But still, there were tons of other kids and a nice-looking lady that greeted his parents.

“Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Tomlinson. It’s very nice to meet you! And I guess this is little Nathan?” She crouched down, her polka-dotted dress piling up in her lap.

“I am! But I’m not little! I’m thwee!” He hold up three chubby little fingers and smiled as brightly at her as possible. His Daddy always said people like you better when you smile at them.

“Oh, are you!” She giggled, and Nate decided that he liked her. “I’m Miss Nancy, and I’ll be your teacher. Do you want to say goodbye to your parents now, so that we can go inside?”

Nathan nodded enthusiastically, and then turned to where his parents were standing, arm in arm, both of them smiling ridiculously big and looking a bit dumb. He was sure he could see some tears pooling up in his dad’s eyes.

“Bye daddies!! I will miss you!” Then he flung himself at his Papa’s legs and hugged them tightly. The man only chuckled and picked the little boy up, pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

“Take care of yourself, yeah bud? And don’t be too hard on anyone, okay?”

“’kay Papa.”

Then he was passed over to Daddy, who was crying a tiny little bit now. Daddy had always been very emotional, Papa said. “Oh my baby. I will miss you too sweetie.” Then he continued to kiss over Nate’s whole face.

“Eww Daddy, stop.” The curly-haired man only chuckled and gave his firstborn son a last squeeze before then setting him back down on the ground.

Excitedly Nate ran over to where Miss Nancy was now standing in front of the entrance. “Nathan! Be careful!” he heard his Daddy yell, and he quickly turned around one more time and waved at the two men before he took the Miss’ hand and was lead inside the building. 

Preschool was absolutely amazing. There was a drawing table, a dollhouse for the girls, wooden swords to play knights or pirates with, some musical instruments and a small kitchen where you could cook play food. Outside you could play football, hide and seek and other games. Nate had tons of fun, and since he had no problems at all talking to other kids, he quickly found himself kicking a ball around with a girl with black hair called Celia, a boy called Simon – he told him to call him Sim – and two other boys, a bit older than the rest of them, called Ryan and Jake.

“Sooo,” Celia asked, “is this your first day, Nate?” 

Nate nodded, while kicking the ball over to Sim, a very precise shot. He had his Papa’s good genes when it came to playing football, and he was very proud of his footie skills. “Uh-huh.”

“And, did your parents bring you over, or did you come all by yourself?” What a stupid question, Nate thought. Even though he was a big boy now, or maybe because of that, he knew that no three year-old would go to preschool all on their own. 

“My dads bwought me over before going to work.” 

“Your dads? Don’t you mean your _dad_?” This was the first time Jake had spoken up, his voice sounding high-pitched and slightly nasally.

Nate shook his head. “No, my dads; Daddy and Papa!”

“You have two fathers?” Ryan sneered, looking like he had just taken a bit of some gross food.

“Uh, yeah?” Nate was confused. Was something not okay with that? Apparently not, since Ryan picked up the ball and shot him a disgusted look. “We don’t wanna play with you anymore. It is wrong, two men together, my mum said. Fag kid!” Then he kicked some dirt in Nate’s direction, pulling Jake with him as he stomped away.

Nate stood there, feeling helpless, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Sim was there, side-to-side with Celia, as they looked at him with sad faces. “It’s okay Nate. We don’t need a douche like him anyway. We can have fun of our own!”

Despite the support of the two Nate now decided to call his friends, it was most definitely not okay. The rest of the day he spent in the drawing corner, aimlessly scribbling red over a colour-in-picture of a house and a tree. Shortly before the end of his very first day of preschool, which hadn’t gone over as smoothly as he’d hoped, Miss Nancy walked up to him.

“Hey. Don’t you want to play with the other kids for another while?”

Nate shook his head, eyes still fixed on the now almost fully red sheet of paper.

“Why not? Were you not having fun?”

“They were mean to me” he said, still without looking at his teacher. 

“Oh. What did they say, sweetie?”

“Said they didn’t wanna play with me anymo’e because of my dads.” Now Miss Nancy looked properly shocked, and softly placed a hand on his tiny shoulder.

Nate was crying a bit now, trying to bite the tears back so that she didn’t see them. “They said I’m a fag kid. What does that even mean, Miss? And they said my dads are wrong!” He had now finally turned to face her, and tears started to run down his face, no matter how hard he tried to stop crying. 

Miss Nancy shook her head angrily. “That means I need to have a serious talk with someone and their parents. Who were they, Nathan? Who said those things to you?”

“Ryan and Jake,” Nate whispered, still ashamed of how he’s weeping like a baby.

“Okay.” Miss Nancy petted his head, then crouched down to him. “You know what? Sim and Cee over there would probably love to play with you, cheer you up a bit! What do you say, you go to them while I talk to the other two boys, would that be ok?” 

Nate nodded hesitantly, pocketing the red crayon and then shuffling over to where his friends were shooting concerned looks at him.

“Hey,” Sim asked, “everything okay?” Nate only nodded and then joined them on the puzzle their currently solving, kinda glad that the other kids didn’t ask any further questions. Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted Miss Nancy walking over to where Jake and Ryan were playing with the wooden swords. 

It wasn’t even half an hour later before the first parents turned up to fetch their kids. Celia was the first to leave, shortly followed by Sim, much to Nate’s chagrin. But only minutes later, Papa leaned in the doorway, a content smirk on his face. 

“Hi there little man,” he mouthed over to Nate, and the little boy tried to show him a weak smile in return. His papa then got wrinkles in his forehead, and oh no, he knew something was wrong. He’d already started to walk over to Nate when he got held up by Miss Nancy. They talked in hushed voices, and Nate observed the crease in between his father’s eyebrows getting deeper. As the adults finished their talk, Papa nodded shortly, and then finally came to scoop Nate up in his arms. 

“I’m so sorry baby,” he softly whispered, carrying him out to the car.

Later that night, when Nate should have already been asleep, he heard Papa and Daddy talking in the kitchen.

“But we never even thought about it Lou! We never realized what other kids might think about a boy with gay parents! That it could make it so difficult for our children to find friends!”

“Harry, Hazza, calm down!!” his Papa said, but Nate heard in the tone of his voice that he was close to crying, or yelling, too.

“I just. Fuck. I feel so bad about it. I feel so bad about something I shouldn’t be ashamed of. But I am, Louis, I am!” 

Nate had by now sneaked up to the kitchen door, peeking through the crease that let him get a partial view of the room. Daddy had his face covered with his hands. Papa walked up to him and gently took them away again. 

“Haz, we –" he suddenly stopped, and when Nate looked in his direction he realized that he had been discovered.

“Nathan,” Papa sighed, “shouldn’t you be in bed already?”

He opened the door wider, once again picking Nate up, holding him close. 

“Was it bad? Was it bad that I told them about you?” Nate’s voice sounded just as he felt just then. Guilty, tired.

“No, no!” Papa forcefully shook his head, setting the toddler down on the kitchen table.

Daddy sighed one more time, then he bent down only a little bit, so that he was face-to-face with his three year old son. 

“Nate. You have two dads. Me and Louis- Papa. And that is completely okay and fine. But, some people don’t think so. Some people think the right to fall in love, marry, and have children together is only meant for a man and a woman.”

“Why?” Nate was genuinely confused. Why would it not be okay? Why would anyone think that?

Papa sighed too, laying his hand on his husbands shoulder. “What we are, me and your dad, is called gay. We prefer boys to girls, our own gender to the opposite one. It’s called the same is when two girls like each other. Then they are gay too. And some people, some very narrow-minded, if not a bit stupid people, think one shouldn’t be- gay. And when such people are confronted with anything that has to do with being gay- like a little boy with gay parents- they get very insulting.

“The word that boy Jason- or whatever his name was- called you was a very ugly and insulting word for a gay man. And that’s why Miss Nancy got so angry. That’s also why we’re kinda upset. That you had to go through that because of us.”

“It doesn’t mean we love you any less than a mother and father would,” Daddy stepped in again, “and we aren’t angry with you either. You just need to be prepared for the fact that, while those boys were the first ones to insult you because of us, they unfortunately won’t be the last. You just have to stay strong and not get pulled down by them, okay?”

He stroked Nate’s tear-strained cheek, and yeah, Nate realized right then how much his parents loved him. And that was the only thing that mattered to him. And right then he vowed to always stand up for them, because they’d do anything for him, too.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://headband-husbands.tumblr.com/)


End file.
